‘Prisons should be nicer so criminals feel hopeful about future’: UK pollie

Prison should give criminals “hope”. That was the message from UK Justice Secretary David Gauke this week who said detention should “change the lives” of offenders.

The British politician told The Telegraph that the current justice system, where jail is seen solely as a tool for “punishment” and “retribution”, is no longer efficient, with recent figures showing that crime is on the rise in the UK.

Knife crimes have risen by 16 per cent, and are now at the highest level ever recorded in the UK, while the number of murders committed is up by 12 per cent.

Gauke believes that “society would be stronger” if prisoners were able to more easily integrate rather than resorting to repeated criminal behaviour, with an astonishing 60 per cent of those handed short prison sentences in the UK going on to reoffend once they’ve been released from jail.

He suggested methods such as handing out “well done” notes to inmates to encourage positive behaviour, as well as suggesting that privileges are doled out as a way of giving inmates something to aspire to.

Scandinavian countries, such as Norway and Sweden, already utilise this type of justice system, allowing prisoners more freedom. At Bastoy Prison, in Norway, prisoners are allowed to live and work as they would upon their release, with the country boasting the lowest rates of recidivism in the world.

Bastoy, which sits on an island south of Norway, is known as the ‘world’s nicest prison’ due to its seemingly homey conditions, with convicts holding keys to their rooms and no armed guards or fences surrounding the jail. There is also a beach where prisoners can sunbathe and some of the 115 prisoners, all of whom are serving time for serious crimes such as rape and murder, stay in wooden cottages.

Read more: Aussie taxpayers forking out thousands for prison repairs.

While they have the lowest rates for prisoners reoffending, Scandinavian countries fork out the most to sustain their justice system. The cost for supporting one prisoner for an entire year in Sweden is almost $200,000 (1,310,473 Swedish Krona), while in Norway it costs only slightly less and in Netherlands they fork out $150,000 per prisoner, per annum.

Australia currently spends around $109,500 to cover the cost of detaining one inmate for a single year, which is the fifth highest cost per prisoner in the OECD. Only Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had higher costs. 

While reoffending rates are not quite as high as the UK in Australia, recent figures showed that an average of 44.8 per cent of prisoners (who were released between 2014 and 2015) had returned to jail within two years. South Australia had the lowest rate at 36.2 per cent, while the Northern Territory had the highest rate at 57.1 per cent.

What do you think? Are prisons in Australia in need of reform?